On August 28, 2007, Sharp Corporation held an opening ceremony for Sharp Manufacturing Poland Sp.z o.o. (SMPL), a new LCD module and LCD TV production base that serves the European market. Attendees included officials from the Polish national and local governments, the Japanese ambassador to Poland, Sharp's business partners, and Sharp President & COO Mikio Katayama.

SMPL is located near the city of Torun in Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voidvodship in the north-central part of the Republic of Poland. It is the first plant in the Sharp Group to manufacture LCD modules in Europe. Operations are going ahead as scheduled; LCD module production started in January 2007, and integrated production--covering the manufacture of LCD modules and the assembly of LCD TVs--began in July 2007.

Europe has been experiencing vibrant demand for LCD TVs these past years. It is estimated that in fiscal 2011 demand will grow to 36 million units, accounting for 30% of world LCD TV demand. And now that the time frame to phase out terrestrial analog broadcasts has been decided on in Europe, there will definitely be robust demand for large full-HD LCD TVs on the continent in the near future.

In order to meet this active demand, Sharp will gradually increase production capacity at SMPL, with plans for 10 million LCD modules a year in 2011. In addition to the integrated manufacture of LCD TVs, SMPL will also supply LCD modules for the large LCD TVs made at Sharp's plant in Spain and at Loewe's plant in Germany.